All of you, after a year or even several years of efforts and fierce competition, are smoothly admitted into the Graduate School of Xiamen University. During the harvest of success, have you stopped and seriously thought, in the next three years or even longer period of time, what you expect in the end?  Just a diploma of education background as a means to earn a living? Fellow students, many gaps in life often start from efforts and pursuit in your school days. Since 2006, I have been engaged in the management of graduate students, but also guided many master and doctoral students. From my personal experience and observation, it is very important for you to deal with the following four pairs of relations.

The first is the relationship between ideal and utility. Frankly, compared with ten or twenty years ago, utilitarian thought is kink of overflowing in universities. Some students enter a school, not focusing on the interest of academic issues, but on how to find a good job or which supervisors can help recommend internships and employment. Some students even from the first day of school automatically switch the learning process to the process of pursuing certificates and internship process. Opportunism becomes fast track, so the result is our university has cultivated a group of "refined egoist" or "self-serving professionals". I want to tell you, God helps those who help themselves, our society will finally compliment those down to earth. Ideal determines a person's height, and also determines a person's pattern of achievement. The most successful people in all walks of life must be full of passion and ideals, pursue improvement and strive for perfection. At every stage of life there is  a different focus, and  graduate students should be full of enthusiasm, express opinion about state affairs, encourage each other in study and  talk freely about ideals. Three to four years in school is a very short but valuable period, please be sure to thoroughly enjoy the beautiful campus, develop righteousness, expand their own mind, and also expand their own pattern, which is the most valuable means for your future development.

The second is the relationship between selection and persistence. Students are living in the era of happiness, with many opportunities for freedom of choice. Is it to continue to pursue a Ph.D. degree or choose an employment? Pursue a domestic or overseas Ph.D. degree? During the study, which area of interests should one choose and how to choose? I told my students that persistence is much more important than selection. When you pour a glass of water on the desk, what matters is not where the water flows, but which part of the water flows farthest. You can’t have your cake, and eat it. It is impossible for water flowing in all directions to go very far. For all walks of life or various research orientations, there are huge differences, but the rate of return for the most successful people are by and large the same. I've seen a lot of students, wasting a lot of time on selection, which is really a pity. For students admitted to the Xiamen University, in addition to a handful of genius, your intelligence and ability should be far above the ordinary level. You start your journey earlier than others, and consistently go in one direction. When you travel further more than eighty percent of people, you can harvest the majority of the success. And when you go further better than ninety-nine percent of people, you can harvest the lion’s share of the success. Successful model is that you can go far than others. Two kinds of students often easily fall into this issue, either overconfident students or students who are not very confident. Overconfident students always overestimate their capacities, and always feel that they can bear fruits in many directions, rather seek more than go deep. Students who are not very confident often fear and dare not persist. Even after they hesitatingly make choices, when they see their classmates make different choices, they are prone to feel feared and insecure, with the herd instinct to follow the road of seeking more. Therefore, selection is difficult, and it is more difficult to adhere to the selection. Only with ideal can we obtain courage and wisdom of persistence.

The third is the relationship between short term and long term. For graduate students, whether you want to pursue an academic path, or want to engage in the industry in the future, we need to understand the importance of learning the basic academic theory and core technology training. A student complained to me that he felt some course useless. I first asked him whether he took it seriously. Though it is the best curriculum, if you take it lightly, you will feel that learning it is useless. Training of basic courses in universities does not lie in its instant effect, which is vocational training, so don’t downgrade Xiamen University to a Vocational Training Institute. University training stresses seemingly useless value, through years of subtle influence on your character, make you deeply experience the core and spirit of disciplines, and shape your scientific and standardized way of thinking. A workman must first sharpen his tool if he is to do his work well. Do not rush to do some short-term and easy subjects, and research is often a process of accumulating knowledge, without a shortcut, so you need to calm down and be patient. I got my Ph.D degree, a small part of the doctoral thesis was published in 2008, but the main part of the doctoral was not published until 2012 after I improved on its main part. However, from 2012 to present, I have published more than 20 articles in domestic and foreign authoritative academic journals, and significantly speeded up the rhythm in the past several years.

The fourth is the relationship between profession and eruditeness. Professional learning and professional research of course is very important, but do not let yourselves become a "one-dimensional person" caught in your profession. Graduate students should read widely, maintain a strong curiosity and reverence for historical and cultural and natural science, but not discard those irrelevant to your major. Be a person with taste, not just a man of knowledge. Now frontier development often lies in interdisciplinary exchange and integration, so maybe one day your eruditeness will become a weapon for your academic research. You will reap happiness and success from learning or research, but more often than not you will feel hopeless and struggling. In the most difficult time when you learn and study, you can temporarily put it aside, communicate with ancient or modern people to soothe your mood and calm down your emotion, and perhaps there will be surprises.

In final, I wish all of you a smooth study and a bright future.